(from http://www.westarkchurchofchrist.org/chadwell/1997/051197pm.htm )

FAITH GROWS THROUGH DOUBT

If you are observing a person’s faith, how can you tell if that faith is strong? That sounds like a very simple question that should have a very simple answer. But neither the question nor the answer is simple.

We do have some ready made answers for that question. Ready made answer number one: Look at the person’s life and see how the person acts. I have been working with Christians for years. My objective is very simple: guide and direct the person in a way that he or she finds spiritual help. I have worked with Christians who occupied prominent roles in the congregation, who had the appearance of someone genuinely devoted to God. But some of those Christians had either a secret life or a secret problem. The observable appearance looked impressive. The secret reality was tragic. A person may look like he or she has faith, may work like he or she has faith, when in reality the person has very little faith. They play the religion game really well, but they have a weak faith in God.

Ready made answer number two: Look for doubt or questioning. If the person has a strong faith, he or she has no doubts; he or she does not ask questions. They have “blind faith”–they trust God without questioning or thinking.

Fanatics have no doubts and despise those who have questions. Prejudice has no doubts and despises those who ask questions. Bigots have no doubts and resents those who have questions. The naive have no doubts and are deeply skeptical of anyone who has questions. Zealots have no doubts and regard anyone with questions as a serious opponent.

Any perspective that reduces matters to oversimplifications holds to the oversimplifications without doubt. Oversimplified perspectives also regard those with questions as an enemy.

Faith is not a fact to be possessed; It is a confidence to be advanced and developed. Any person who has faith at all times both has it and is developing it. There is a direct correlation between having occasions of doubt that raise hard questions and the development of the confidence that the Bible calls faith.

The Bible documents clearly that the constructive use of this kind of doubt is a part of the process of developing the faith or dependence God wants all of us to have.